


i had a marvelous time ruining everything

by myillusionsgone



Series: said, "i'm fine," but it wasn't true [10]
Category: Fairy Tail
Genre: Gen, mastermind Bob is canon in my heart! let it be canon in your heart as well!, this can be summarised as 'tea time & gossip'
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-05
Updated: 2020-10-05
Packaged: 2021-03-08 03:21:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,768
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26838874
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/myillusionsgone/pseuds/myillusionsgone
Summary: earl grey and scones in early autumn. — Master Bob
Relationships: Goldmine (Fairy Tail) & Master Bob (Fairy Tail)
Series: said, "i'm fine," but it wasn't true [10]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1623238
Comments: 1
Kudos: 3





	i had a marvelous time ruining everything

**Author's Note:**

  * For [woopsforgotadam](https://archiveofourown.org/users/woopsforgotadam/gifts).



The tea’s steam rose lazily, drifted over the marble chessboard and then disappeared into the evening air. There might be a metaphor somewhere inside of this image, the man mused as he took a sip from his cup before lifting his gaze when he heard the rustle that announced his guest. The younger man looked exhausted as he took the two steps leading to the gazebo and his coat seemed to be a size or two too large, hanging off his haggard frame awkwardly.

In short, he looked much like how Bob felt.

The past weeks, the past  _ months _ had not been easy for anyone; too many pieces were missing, made it impossible to  **know** what was going on behind closed doors,  _ sub rosa _ . And for his part, Bob had forgotten what it was like when he did not know the board as it had been  _ many _ years since the last time.

“Good evening, Uncle Bob,”  _ little _ Ivan greeted as he pulled back a chair and sat, hands folded in front of him, and the guild master brightened at the greeting. It could be rather hit or miss with the mood the raven had when he arrived — sometimes, he was in high spirits but other times, he was somber and gloomy, without ever saying what was causing either. In short, he was much like his mother in yet another regard.

Bob smiled as he pushed the little basket with scones over towards his guest, biting back the familiar urge to tell him to  _ please eat everything, you look like a scarecrow _ . “I made the jam myself. I hope you still like my raspberry-cassis recipe,” he said instead as he leaned back in his chair. “And I hope you forgive me that I invited you on such short notice.”

Porlyusica’s son reached for the scones as he nodded, his face guarded. “I was hoping we could pool our resources to gain an understanding of the situation; surely I’m not the only one who is  _ concerned _ by Makarov’s disappearance,” he said as he tilted his head. “Mother doesn’t know where he went, not that  _ this _ is a surprise.”

“Sica said she’d only care if he’d found someone to shoot him to the moon.” Goldmine’s arrival had been quiet as ever as he had expertly avoided the potential pitfalls of creaking tiles and dry twigs, and long knew how to navigate the grounds without drawing attention towards himself. As he sat down, Bob caught the by-now-familiar scent of gardenias, much like he had caught on to the warmth in his old friend’s gaze as he regarded them both. “And as I haven’t fulfilled that particular wish, I haven’t an idea,” he added as he sat down, putting down his sunglasses in front of his empty tea cup.

Ivan softly laughed into his teacup as he returned Goldmine’s greeting. “Given a few years and unlimited funding, I could certainly come up with something to make that dream come true,” he said earnestly, but the gleam in his eyes was  _ so much like his mother’s _ that Bob had to avert his gaze. These little meetings always felt a bit like betrayal, he did not need to see his old friend staring at him from her son’s face to remember this.

Goldmine bellowed out a good-natured laugh as he clasped the kid’s shoulder, mirth bright on his face. “You make her proud,” he said as he caught the croissant Bob threw at him. There was a time and place to maintain a dignified image, but Goldmine had known him too long to be tricked easily. “But truthfully — it worries me that neither of you know where he is.”

Bob scoffed as he rolled his eyes, his chin propped up on his palm. “I’d be hard pressed to mourn him,” he admitted dryly as he looked at the garden that surrounded them, making sure that there was not a single leaf out of place. “Anyone asked Yajima?”

The question was met with a synchronised snort, but it was Ivan who spoke first. “Last I saw Yajima, I . . .  _ suggested _ he’d lift the declaration that Raven Tail is a dark guild,” he replied slowly, cutting his scone in half with surgical precision. “So that’s a no.”

“And the odds that you spoke to him are zero, Goldmine.” He looked away from the marble fountain with the silver pegasus to raise an eyebrow at his old friend who unabashedly grinned back at him. “Same goes for Sica, I’d wager,” he added with a sigh. He loved his friends and he often worried about them, but neither Porlyusica and Goldmine were good at hiding their dismay with some figures of their shared past.

Ivan’s expression was downright gleeful as he took a bite of his scone and chewed carefully, looking almost  _ too _ happy with the situation. “I think she avoided talking to him the entire time she treated him after his encounter with that demon,” he said as he gently clinked his cup against Goldmine’s. “But if someone knows where Makarov is, it’s Yajima.”

Goldmine’s face darkened as he studied Ivan’s face with keen eyes before he sighed. “Always liked how Yajima put his friendship over his duty,” he said before taking a sip of the tea he had brought in his thermos. “I mean — so do we, some days, but at least we aren’t  _ on the council _ .”

After such a long time of being friends — Bob would never say just how long he had known Goldmine by now, it only made him feel old — there were things that did not need to be said. Just like Bob would never corner Goldmine to ask about the gardenias (because he was pretty sure he already knew), Goldmine would never make him say what he thought of the council. And little Ivan, too, knew. He had grown up with all the things that were never being said as it was already  _ too known _ in the first place. Sometimes, Bob wondered if maybe they had been just as unfair to the kid as Makarov had been, with all the secrets they had made him a keeper of from the time he had been able to understand what was going on.

“I  _ do _ wonder,” Ivan muttered as he looked down at his hands, “if it’s got something to do with Lumen Histoire.”

Goldmine grimaced as he took another sip of his tea, though Bob was not sure if it was the  _ certainly abhorrent _ taste or the topic that made him frown. “Lumen Histoire,” he repeated as he set down his cup. “You mean the thing no one on this table is supposed to know about?”

Bob sighed softly as he poured cream into his tea and stirred it carefully, his brows furrowing as he thought about the darker secrets of his former guild. He had  **always** known that it would one day give him nothing but wrinkles. “It  _ would _ make sense.” He shrugged, but it was difficult to retain  _ levity _ with a topic as heavy in the air between them. “I never found out much about it, in the end. But there are too many gaps in recent history this would fit into.”

Like the attempted invasion he was not supposed to know about.

Next to him, his old friend cleared his throat before he reached for the pocket that had held his pipe until a few years back. “From what  _ I _ know,” Goldmine began as he stared off into the distance, “it’d explain the way Makarov got all wormy a couple years back. He got suddenly  _ very _ interested in what I recalled about guild secrets.”

“He got kind of curious about me as well,” Ivan nodded as he leaned back in his chair. “Not that he  _ talked _ to me, but he’s been trying to infiltrate my guild.”

Bob tsk-ed as he regarded the other two. “ _ Wormy _ , Goldmine, really?” he asked with a scoff.

“He was squirming as if I was trying to eat him when he tried to question me,” the other replied seriously, though there was a glimmer in his eyes that made a liar out of him. Even if the description was precise (which it probably was, Goldmine had never been one to embellish his tales), it had probably amused him then just as much as it was amusing him now. “I told him the same I told you when you asked me why I wasn’t running for guildmaster  _ there _ — that I don’t have the necessary aptitude for light magic.”

Porlyusica’s son had spent too many years schooling himself to keep a straight face under all circumstances for Bob to describe the sound he made as a guffaw, but it was something akin to that. “He must’ve  _ loved _ that,” he said as he shook his head. “Sadly.”

Goldmine  _ winked _ — winked! — as he took another swig of his horrid herbal concoction. “I told him I wouldn’t go sharing  _ Fairy Tail _ secrets,” he said as he turned his somber look at Bob once more. “Never said I’d protect his secrets. Frankly, it made me feel like Yajima.”

“We have our scones today — please take another, little Ivan — and he’ll get his just desserts another day,” Bob said sagely as he swallowed down a grin. He had never felt comfortable dragging other people into his fights (and matters with Makarov were dreadfully  _ personal _ ), but he knew there was little love lost between his tea companions and the wannabe-Oberon. Still, he reminded himself as he looked at Ivan, that was even less a reason to pull him into this. And when it all was over and all scores were settled once more, he would apologise to Goldmine; there was much Bob  _ had _ known, but he had not known that  **all** Great Fairy Tail Magicks were light-based until his friend had laid it out in front of him. This was news to him, though it answered  _ some _ of his questions.

Nevermind, he was not going to risk his reputation as an excellent host today, even though it was tempting to chase his own thoughts down a rabbit hole. “Heard anything from Makarov’s favourites?” he asked as he focused on the good-natured squabble between his guests over the last cup of tea in the pot. “Laxus and his friends are with me, and I hear Scarlet joined the council?” he mused aloud, though everyone at this table knew that his information was usually right on the money. Still,  _ thankfully  _ he did not even have to pretend that Ivan sat a little straighter at this as some of his ever-nervous energy petered out into the evening air.


End file.
